The Importance of Collaboration in Content Production

Great content doesn’t just happen. It’s a product of research, brand awareness and effective collaboration.

All too often, in-house marketing departments experience a shortage of new and fresh ideas that in turn impacts the success of the campaigns they produce. One of the reasons behind this can often be attributed to a lack of meaningful collaboration, both internally and externally.

If new ideas are nowhere to be found, the need for marketers to reassess their knowledge of what makes their target audience tick is highlighted. Equally, when wide-reaching campaigns are few and far between, it suggests new methods of sharing content and reaching audiences are needed.

Sales-Marketing collaboration is priceless

Sales-marketing collaboration essentially refers to conversations that take place between sales and marketing teams concerning new content generation.

Let’s think about this for a second: your marketing department is made up of great copywriters, marketers and social media buffs. The sales team is made up of individuals who know your company’s offering inside-out and back-to-front, and will often be the ones in direct contact with customers.

Clear communication between both teams can result in original ideas that demonstrate the company’s intimate knowledge of their offering and target audience. Sales and marketing teams should always be viewed as intrinsically linked; a great marketing campaign helps salespeople close business, whilst the unique insight of salespeople helps marketers create relevant content.

If you place focus on effective inter-departmental collaboration you’ll soon be bouncing great ideas around the office.

Reach out to agencies for fresh content

Talented content agencies focus their time and effort on developing fresh and inspiring content and are seasoned professionals when it comes to helping companies market themselves. They look at your brand as a whole and ask questions like:

• What makes your brand offering different and unique? • What’s the story behind your brand? • What are the needs, desires and motivations of your typical customer?

These questions are designed to provide them with insight into your company required to help them generate positive brand perceptions within your content. When it comes to keeping content calendars alive and kicking, even the most finely tuned marketing department can benefit from external collaboration with reputable content agencies. After all, a study released by the Content Marketing Institute and Curata found that 75% of companies are increasing their investment in content marketing.

Benefits of using a content calendar

We’ve looked at how internal and external collaborations are key in producing relevant and engaging content, but it is also vital to have a point of reference that brings together the ideas, content and strategies they produce. This is where a content calendar is invaluable. In their blog, Ad-Rank Media talk about the benefits of using a content calendar within your content strategy and provide helpful template ideas for creating your own calendar.

In its simplest form, your calendar should detail the content your company will produce at a given time. If used consistently, it provides a visual representation of your content long-term and prevents content from being repeated or becoming stale. It also acts as an anchor for your marketing activity – use it to keep track of your internal and external collaborations and you’ve got yourself a very handy tool indeed.

Team up with external parties to share your content

You’re now successfully collaborating with your internal sales team and have teamed up with a trusted content agency to complement in-house content. You’re also keeping track of your activities using a well-oiled content calendar – great! But your work isn’t done yet. Now to make sure your content reaches your target audience. This doesn’t necessarily have to be a costly exercise; Reddit, Google+ and StumbleUpon are all examples of sharing platforms to help you get your content out there without incurring hefty fees.

Reaching out to influencers is also a great way of sharing your content. Influencers are the bloggers, industry analysts or journalists who influence customer trends, which makes them potentially extremely useful in reaching your target audience. If this strategy appeals to you, the first thing to do is research key influencers in your field. Search social media for influencers who may have mentioned your brand in posts, then make a list of those you’d like to partner with.

Begin building a relationship with them over social media, by liking and commenting on their posts for example. Finally, get in touch with them via direct message and let them know about your company. If you don’t have the time to do the legwork yourself, a reputable marketing agency specialised in content strategy and sharing will be able to assist you with this.

The key to a successful marketing strategy is understanding when internal and external collaborations will add value to your company, and how to manage them.

No matter how great your marketing team is, the work they produce and results they achieve will always benefit from solid internal and external collaboration.

If you’re looking to collaborate with talented copywriters or content strategists, get in touch today.